Nuclear Weaponry
Nuclear Weaponry was a common form of armament used by The Royal Allegiance and many other factions before and during the Swarm War. History Usage Nuclear weaponry was often used in spatial combat as heavy fire between warships. Such was the advancement of shielding technology that most vessels could sustain a few hits and remain intact. Depending on the velocity of the shell or warhead, it could sometimes be intercepted by hostile point defense weaponry or AAA batteries. More advanced warheads had huge speeds to counter this. Nuclear warheads or nuclear-enhanced shells could never have superluminal speeds and so were only used at close range. Guided nuclear warheads could be launched at around 100km from a target, which was considered close range for a spatial engagement. Shells and other unguided munitions generally had to be fire from within a few kilometres from the target. Particle Cannons were both far more ranged and far more powerful than nuclear weaponry, their superluminal speeds allowing them a theoretical indefinite range, although a practical range maximum of about 20 light minutes (359,750,950km) for the larger, prow-based cannons and about 5 light minutes (89,937,737km) for smaller turreted cannons. However, nuclear weaponry continued to be used alongside Particle cannons because of their close range effectiveness and large area of effect. A nuclear warhead fired at a hostile vessel 1km away will detonate and cause severe damage to the ship's shielding, due to its large blast radius. This large radius could not be matched by the Particle Cannon, whose blast radius is always exactly twice the diameter of the barrel that fired it. Nuclear weaponry was used far more often in space than inside atmosphere, where its deadly effects could severely damage a planet's ecosystem and destroy its ability to support life. Occasionally this fact was exploited to deny a planet to the enemy, but generally it was agreed that a planet was better off captured than nuked. The Swarm War changed this, however, as military commanders used every option available to repel the insectoids from a planet, even destroying it. The usage of nuclear weaponry, however, did depend greatly on the type of weapon it was. There were two types of nuclear warfare, strategic and tactical. Strategic Nuclear Weaponry Strategic nuclear weapons were generally larger and more destructive than tactical nuclear devices. Their purpose was large-scale destruction of cities, countries and sometimes even planets. Generally they were involved in some kind of large-scale, long-term strategy such as destoying a city to rid the enemy of troop resources, destruction of enemy natural resources etc, but often with no military or battlefield value. It was extremely rare that they were used during battle, due to the massive colateral damage they caused. Tactical Nuclear Weaponry Tactical Nuclear weapons were, conversely, commonly used throughout the Allegiance Armed forces. Most warships featured them as a frontal armament, facilitated by prow-facing warhead tubes. Notable examples of this were the Triton-class Heavy Destroyer and the Ares-class Battleship. They could even be carried by the small fighters or bombers for swift, small and less detectable launch platforms. Design Nuclear warheads, at first nothing more than a fission reaction generating masive amounts of energy. However, later weapons were enhanced with tiny amounts of antimatter, usually contained in some sort of forcefield to stop it coming into contact with any matter. Upon impact the forcefield would deactivate and the antimatter would come into direct contact with the matter of either the warhead or the vessel, causing a huge matter-antimatter reaction which would magnify the nuclear blast by hundreds or sometimes even thousands of times. Guided warheads, while longer ranged than unguided shells and generally carrying a larger payload, were much more vulnerable to being shot down by enemy point-defense guns and AAA emplacements despite their speed. To combat this, they were usually equipped with various stealth features such as radar-absorbant coating, thruster baffles and thin radar cross-section to avoid detection. While this did not render the warheads invisible, they were already smaller than starfighters and the stealth measures meant that their radar contacts were tiny, too tiny to recognise as a threat. As a result it was unlikely, though not impossible, that a target ship would detect an incoming warhead and intercept it. Starfighter pilots, often closer to the battle than warships, could better detect warheads and sometimes flew into their paths or shot at them, knowing they were well inside the device's blast radius. It was a commonly held belief that it was a pilot's duty to sacrifice him/herself for the hundreds or thousands of lives back on their base warship. Category:Weapons Category:Weapons of The Royal Allegiance